Int’l Curator shows Boleo to potential bidders

With a positive prefeasibility study in hand, International Curator Resources (IC-T) has opened a data room to allow potential bidders a look at the Boleo copper-cobalt-zinc deposit in Baja California Sur, Mexico.

The study, conducted by Fluor Daniel Wright, concluded the project could produce, on a yearly basis, 45,000 tonnes of copper, 2,800 tonnes cobalt and 17,900 tonnes zinc. Capital costs are expected to be about US$440 million, slightly more than half of which would be applied to processing facilities and tailings disposal.

Boleo has reserves of 70 million tonnes with average grades of 1.29% copper, 0.09% cobalt and 0.62% zinc, based on an economic cutoff equivalent to 1% copper. Total resources are 445 millon tonnes grading 0.71% copper, 0.06% cobalt and 0.69% zinc, and Curator expects that part of the resource could be brought into the reserve category before final feasibility studies are complete.

The proposed open pit has a high stripping ratio of 18-to-1, but, since most of the material is rippable, it is expected that mining costs will be low.

Previously considered to be a waste at the project, the zinc mineralization may actually increase the feasibility of mining other mineralization. A zone of zinc mineralization southwest of the main copper-cobalt-zinc reserve is viewed as a potential new orebody at Boleo. Resource figures are not yet available for that zone.

The study projects that Boleo’s rather complex metallurgical plant will recover about 81% of the copper, 69% of the cobalt and 59% of the zinc. The plant uses solvent extraction-electrowinning (SX-EW) as a primary recovery method, but will also produce flotation concentrates as feed for the SX-EW process.

The mine will have to make its own sulphuric acid for the SX-EW operation.

Current plans have the mine importing elemental sulphur to make sulphuric acid. Most processes have been designed to run on sea water, but a desalination plant is part of the design.

According to Curator, “a large number of pre-qualified prospective companies” have made appointments to examine the prefeasibility data, and it expects to arrange a deal with one of them by the end of the year.